Miracle, pastor of Broad Street Presbyterian Church Downtown, used the comedy to talk about "the
challenges of prayer and the nature of Jesus."

She plans to use pop culture as a theological teaching tool again this Lent as she teaches a
class that will explore the season's themes through films.

Her tentative plan is to show clips from movies as varied as
Grand Canyon (1991),
Quiz Show (1994) and
Dead Man Walking (1995).

Miracle, a movie buff, isn't the only central Ohio minister using film to bring home the lessons
of Lent.

At Highlands Presbyterian Church in Worthington, Tuesday nights will be devoted to soup suppers
and the 1962 film
To Kill a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee's classic novel.

Teens in the youth group at St. Brigid of Kildare Catholic Church in Dublin will watch
Slumdog Millionaire this weekend as part of a period of fasting intended to help
them relate to the poor.

Although some Christians rally against popular culture, there's actually quite a bit of
spiritual in the secular, said Joseph Price, a religious-studies professor at Whittier College in
Whittier, Calif.

Films that people have seen for fun and that don't seem preachy have a lot of power to
evangelize, he said.

"It meets the people in the pew where they live their lives," he said. "It's not an ancient text
that's being resuscitated."

Put frankly, movies are more interesting than your average Bible study. But what do they have to
do with Lent?

Miracle said the movies she's thinking of using touch on Lenten themes such as sin and
redemption. She will show clips and follow up with discussion.

For example, she said, the opening scene of
Grand Canyon is a great entry to a discussion of sin. When Danny Glover's
character is talking to a gang leader, he offers a "really quite theologically sound definition of
sin," she said.

And
Quiz Show, focusing on the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s, is all about
temptation and confession, she said.

Miracle also finds meaning in a scene from
Dead Man Walking in which Susan Sarandon's character, a nun, meets the family of
a murder victim killed by the Death Row inmate whom Sarandon wants spared.

"It's an exploration of the challenges of sin, the challenges of doing the work of
reconciliation," Miracle said.

To Kill a Mockingbird is about loss, introspection and redemption, said the Rev.
Judy Hoffhine, the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian.

The film centers on Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single dad who is raising two children and
defending a black man accused of rape in the 1930s South. The children have a preoccupation with a
reclusive man named Boo Radley who is misunderstood by the neighborhood.

"The way (Finch) interacts with his children and the people around him shows a set of values and
a type of faith that really is something for us to emulate," Hoffhine said.

Finch was famously played by Gregory Peck.

Pam Heil, the youth minister at St. Brigid, said she wants to show a movie that touches on
injustices that Catholics are concerned about, such as poverty and sex trafficking. That's why
she's showing
Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 winner of the Academy Award for best picture.

The students will fast from 4 p.m. Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday to give them a small sense of what
hungry people endure.

The fast and the film, Heil hopes, will teach the teens the most important of Lenten
messages.

"We are supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world," she said. "We should be doing
something to lessen the pain and bring peace and justice to the world."